Things you need to know before you buy the Reliance Jio SIM.

Technology

Vishal Aaditya Kundu

Reliance Jio has been officially launched in India. The 4G services will be rolling out in the country from September 5.

The SIMs are already available at the outlets and dealers. Not only Reliance Jio would be offering services which are in comparison the cheapest in the market, but are among the most affordable data plans ever.

Anyone with a 4G compatible device, you can get the data services absolutely free till the December 31. If you want to enjoy the free services, go and get a sim now.

But before you are ready to switch to Jio, there are some important things you should be keeping in your mind

1. The Reliance Jio is a 4G LTE service. You might be knowing this, but your device needs to support 4G, so you can use that SIM. If not a 4G device, this device won’t support any of the device. Leave internet, you can’t even make any call without a 4G device.

2. When you would be making calls, Reliance Jio will use a VoLTE network. It is the same technology, how the telecom companies operate their networks in the Western countries. It would be a first time in India. It means you will be making all your calls via your data connection.

3. The calls will be made via your mobile internet. When you are talking to another Jio customer, there won’t be any problem. But if you are to make a call to any GSM number, like Airtel or Vodafone or Idea etc, who are all GSM, you need to download and install the app ‘Jio Join’ as all the Jio to GSM calls will be working on the interconnecting infrastructure, presently what the other Indian telecom operators are using.

4. Chances are very high that Jio to GSM calls will mostly fail. As Mukesh Ambani in the Annual General Meeting himself pointed out that said the other telecom operators are not working their part out, and that is not helping Jio to make it a good service for the customers. Looking at the present scenario, the situation does seem to get worser in the future. Only in the last week, Jio had more than 5 crore failed calls.

5. You can get a Reliance Jio SIM in Delhi or Mumbai with your Aadhaar card only at any Jio Store, In the other states of India, it will start in the next 4 to 6 weeks.

6. SIM cards will be given for ZERO cost. You can get one starting on September 5.

7. In case you are a student, get you valid ID to the Jio store, and you can avail upto 25 per cent extra off on all your expenses.

8. Till December 31 all the data plans will be absolutely free. Post that, all you need to do pay is Rs 50 per every GB for your 4G services. That is even cheaper than the 2G plans available now.